In an inspiring story of individual tenacity, coupled with societal and governmental help, five-year old Sneha Tangri underwent a major heart surgery which in all likelihood will improve her quality of life for good.

The story goes back to about five years ago, when at the age of two months, Sneha’s parents took her to a doctor for a routine medical examination but were told that she was suffering from a congenital heart ailment. The doctor advised them to seek specialist medical advice and so they sought the opinion of Dr GS Wander, Chief Cardiologist and Coordinator at Hero DMC Heart Institute (HDHI). Her ECHO tests were then carried out which revealed multiple defects in her heart: one of its valves was defective, it had major blockages and also had two small holes. Her heartbeat was around 45-50 per minute.

Although the conditions were treatable, the cost associated with the surgery was way beyond the means of Sneha’s parents, Ajay Kumar and Poonam. While her father works in Avon Cycles Ltd, her mother is a housewife. As such they decided to delay her surgery as much as they could in the hope that someday things would fall in place.

In the five years since then, although Sneha continued to grow but her growth was marred by frequent bouts of seizures, high temperature and lack of appetite. Her parents were becoming increasingly worried for her, but finally at the start of this year, their hope bore fruit when the Government of Punjab launched a scheme for school children suffering from congenital cardiac disease.

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